Sources: Trump’s team rejected training course for senior staff, cabinet and others on ethics and management https://t.co/e35NKjTaxt
— Carrie Budoff Brown (@cbudoffbrown) March 2, 2017
.
Apart from japes, what’s on the agenda as we start the weekend?
Trentrunner
Trump just here by hearby hereby “demanded” investigations on Nancy Pelosi’s and Chuck Schumer’s Russian connections and “lying” about them.
(Took Trump multiple tweets to get the “hereby” correct.)
But what’s ghastly is a POTUS “demanding” investigations willy-nilly, all as a smokescreen to his own likely wrongdoing.
This. is. insane.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Это – то, что она сказала
JGabriel
Carrie Budoff Brown via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Why waste tax dollars on things like ethics and management that they’ll never use?
Served
I always use to feel an existential dread at stories like this, but with Trump’s regime now in charge and totally non-functional, it’s more of a straight-up feeling of terror. Granted the risk of an epidemic is still low, but man, imagine this scenario taking a turn:
Zinsky
Not a joke but a related question: Have you ever seen Donald Trump laugh? I mean a real, gut-busting belly laugh? Ever? Even once?
Never laughing isn’t normal and is often an indicator of mental illness. I mean, really, what sort of sick person never, ever laughs??
Suzanne
@Trentrunner: Once gain, I am reminded that it is always—ALWAYS—projection with these assholes.
Death Panel Truck
Ethics training is for losers and Democrats! Meanwhile crooked media spreads fake news about very ethical Jeff Sessions! Sad!
MattF
@Trentrunner: Projection.
And, I guess, possibly, the Rovian tactic of accusing your enemies of doing what you’re doing– but probably not. Rove is despicable and infuriating, but he has some self-awareness.
Gin & Tonic
I’ll try once again to post a comment that vanished without a trace downstairs – maybe a change in punctuation is key.
A few weeks back, in response to a comment here, I identified J.D. Gordon as the guy in the room at the RNC Platform Committee, but I alleged that he was acting on Manafort’s direct instructions – because I didn’t think DJT45 was stupid enough to leave a trail that pointed directly back to him. Certainly he’d use a cut-out for that effort.
I was wrong. He was in fact stupid enough, and J.D. Gordon certainly doesn’t seem like he likes the looks of the underside of the bus at this point.
germy
Gin & Tonic
Once again my comment vanishes. I wonder what I’m doing wrong.
Mike in NC
File this one under “Stupid Criminal Did What?”:
Police are investigating a kidnapping reported Thursday, Feb. 23, on Clubhouse Road in Sea Trail.
An officer found a woman bound with duct tape and lying on the floor on a couple of blankets inside her apartment during a check after the department had not heard from her that morning, Interim Police Chief Joe Smith said. The woman told police sometime before daylight a man with a mask over his face entered her rental unit, placed duct tape over her mouth and bound her wrists and ankles with duct tape, Smith said.
She said she believes the man was her boyfriend, who has been served with a restraining order in the past to stay away from her.
Items were also reported stolen from the home. Smith said warrants have been issued for a man who was picked up last week by the County Sheriff’s Office and is being held on separate charges at the County Detention Facility.
Smith declined to name the man until an investigation into the validity of the incident is completed. “We’ve got a suspect,” Smith said Tuesday. “We’ve just got to get a little more (information) to make sure he’s the right person.”
JGabriel
@JGabriel (Me):
On further reflection, I suppose the Trumpsters probably could use the training, if only so they’ll know how to avoid doing anything that might accidentally give the appearance of being ethical, or managerially competent.
John Revolta
Obviously, they thought it was “ethnics and management” and figured, “Pffft. When will we ever need that?”
MattF
@Gin & Tonic: Nothing, most likely. I recommend applying a course of percussive remediation to your computer.
Joyce H
If they had the training, they wouldn’t be able to claim ignorance. “Gollllly, I had no IDEA that was illegal when I did it!”
JGabriel
@MattF:
Actually, that Rovian tactic is sill called Projection. There’s no meaningful distinction in definition there.
Iowa Old Lady
@Trentrunner: He “demands” it? He’s the president. If he thinks it’s important, he can order it. Oh wait. It’s really just a childish pout.
Amanda in the South Bay
In other news, I raced home at lunch yesterday because my schizophrenic roommate was having a bad episode.
https://m.imgur.com/Brufful
Not visible is the broken glass from a picture frame, and one very scared kitty.
Suzanne
@germy: It’s like they’re unaware that musicals as a genre are gay-gay-gay-gay-gay.
Brachiator
@Trentrunner:
Does Trump understand that he is president of the United States, what are his rights and duties, and what is trivial BS that he is not supposed to be concerned about?
chris
@Gin & Tonic: Probably this.
John Revolta
@Trentrunner: “No Russians! No Russians! YOU’RE the Russians!”
jeffreyw
Willful ignorance is the required seasoning for whocouldanoed casseroles and dintseethatcoming pie.
JGabriel
@Brachiator:
Rhetorical question, I assume. But just in case:
No.
Thank you to our audience for joining us on this weeks episode of Simple Answers to Simple Questions! Join us again next week, same bat time, same bat channel!
sigaba
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): “This is that, what she said” doesn’t trip off the tongue in the same way.
GregB
Any truth to the rumor that Rex Tillerson’s official duties will include playing the Easter bunny this year?
MattF
@jeffreyw: With nooneknewitwassocomplicated a la mode for dessert.
Skepticat
@Brachiator: No.
chris
@Amanda in the South Bay: That’s scary. As I recall you basically have no recourse so maybe it’s time to call the cops?
Gin & Tonic
@chris: Well, on the bright side, I’ve never contracted malaria.
JGabriel
@GregB:
He looks so adorable in that wee cotton tail.
chris
@Gin & Tonic: There’s always an upside. Forgive CC, he’s a little unhinged when it comes to gin.
Brachiator
Ethics? Oh, yah, like in that movie:
Press: “If you’re the government, then where are your ethics?”
Gold Hair: “Ethics? We ain’t got no ethics. We don’t need no ethics. I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ ethics!”
—The Bad Hombres of The Mar A Lago
Gin & Tonic
@chris: People are wrong about all sorts of things.
p.a.
@Iowa Old Lady: Would Sessions have to recuse himself from investigating anyone’s links with Russia? That would be sweeeeettt.
scav
Übermenschen, especially of the orange class, transcend mere ethics and balance of powers. They do not deign to manage, they are instantly obeyed.
lgerard
Is there any truth to the rumor that Jeff Sessions will be the new host of Celebrity Apprentice?
chris
@Gin & Tonic: On the internet? Well, I never…
Shana
@GregB: There was an article in WaPo this week that there’s been no announcement about any Easter Egg Roll this year. Not sure there’ll even be one since previous administrations have had announcements by this point in the year.
satby
@Amanda in the South Bay: call the cops and have her recommitted again. She’s a danger to herself obviously, but to your pet and you too. Her meds need adjustment and she needs to be compliant, and it will take hospitalization.
And if her family objects then they need to come get her. You’ve been a good friend but she needs help she’s not getting.
jl
Clearly, we know management is not a high priority with the Trump gang. I suppose we will have more detail on ethics soon enough.
satby
@Shana: stuff like that is usually managed by the First Lady’s office, I think. Melania is AWOL from that role.
efgoldman
@Shana:
Wouldn’t that require the Shitgibbon to interact with (yyeewww!) CHILDREN!?
Thru the Looking Glass...
@JGabriel:
Hell, they probably didn’t even know what that meant…
ETA… they probably looked at that phrase too quickly and saw ethnics an damagement…
They don’t want anything to w/ the ethnics and they’ve already got the damagement part down cold…
Patricia Kayden
@Trentrunner:
Yep. Trump’s tendencies towards corruption have been well documented. Republicans are going along for the ride because they’re getting what they want from him.
NeenerNeener
@efgoldman: Sigh….another thing the Obamas did effortlessly was entertaining children at the WH. I miss them so much.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Because gay people are so icky, doncha know. It’s not as if there aren’t any real live gay people in that theater’s jurisdiction.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
Sorry, but anyone who hadn’t figured out that a male character who sings a song about how awesome and manly another male character is just might be gay should probably get out more.
Oh, and someone should probably clue them in that Liberace was gay, too.
Patricia Kayden
@efgoldman: He’d be okay interacting with the right kind of children but D.C. is pretty much filled with the wrong kind. Sigh. So sad.
Starfish
What?! Comey needs to be in jail too.
Cacti
Trump reminds me of that saying…
Oh what tangled webs we weave, when you’re a lying mother fucker.
I think that’s how it goes. :-)
Mnemosyne
@Amanda in the South Bay:
You need to call your roommate’s doctor and tell him/her what just happened. HIPAA only means that they can’t give you any information, not that you can’t give them information.
And, yes, unfortunately an involuntary commitment may be the best thing for everyone right now.
Pogonip
Do Balloon Juice readers make big bucks? Every time I read the site I get ads for Cadillacs, expensive cruises, financial advisors, things of that sort.
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
Ironically, the actor playing Lefou, Josh Gad, is straight (married with 2 kids). So this movie theater is super upset that a FICTIONAL CHARACTER is played as being gay and in love with Gaston.
Pogonip
@Mnemosyne: Involuntary commitment is extremely difficult. In most states you have no chance unless the patient has injured or killed someone.
schrodingers_cat
@Pogonip: Old men read Balloon Juice, they are the prime demographic for the things you listed. Mostly because they have the big bucks.
Cacti
@Pogonip:
Aren’t the ads usually individualized?
You must be the money bags around here.
Major Major Major Major
Mostly just japes for me.
DocSardonic
@germy: It’s a drive in….. most of their patrons are not watching the movie, they are probably to busy going through the Camaro Kama Sutra, to care what the movie is.
Yarrow
@Starfish: Was just coming to post that. Sen. Coons says FBI has transcripts that show Russian leaders colluding with the Trump campaign.
Drip, drip, drip.
Waldo
@germy:
This being Alabama, I gather they had no problem with the bestiality aspects.
Mnemosyne
@Pogonip:
It’s worth a try, especially since Amanda has pictures. There’s probably a pretty good case that her roommate is in danger of hurting herself.
Pogonip
@Cacti: If that’s so, the rest of you must be darn near penniless!
Mnemosyne
@Cacti:
I’m getting cat food ads, so …
Mike in DC
Harper’s has a translated letter from Trumps grandfather to the Prince Regent of Bavaria, begging not to be deported back to the US for avoiding military service. Hilarious.
Grung_e_Gene
So Crimea River…
Yarrow
@Shana: Oh, that’s so sad. Hasn’t every president in recent memory had one?
Pogonip
@Major Major Major Major: Ah. You’re the cause of the ads. You can afford more than one jape!
Pogonip
@Mnemosyne: Do you have a cat? Subscribe to a magazine about cats?
Major Major Major Major
The ads are a weird combination of things from the various tracking services and things from the blog content, for me. So I’ll get ads for programming textbooks, pet food, and gold.
Mnemosyne
@Pogonip:
It was probably triggered because Amanda’s comment that I replied to referred to her cat. Though I do also have cats.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Mmmmm, gold.
Yarrow
In all the Sessions hubbub I missed this yesterday:
I’ll bet the Brits are hoping he’ll be out of office by then and they won’t have to deal with him at all.
Gravenstone
@Trentrunner: I saw one of the tweets in question because a friend shared a news report highlighting it. For what it’s worth, I took it more as Trump trying to almost joke about it, pointing out that other members of Congress have also had contact with Russians (including Putin) so their complaints about Sessions speaking with Kislyak should be dismissed as pure hypocrisy. In other words, he’s getting nervous and lashing out. If he truly is “demanding” investigation, then the shit is about to hit the fan, especially if Ryan/McConnell comply.
Ian G.
@Brachiator:
It’s stuff like this that make me wish there was a “like” button or something for comments here. I literally lol’d.
scuffletuffle
@Pogonip: we are all independently wealthy, aren’t you? (Gives Pogonip sideeye…)
Major Major Major Major
From NPR:
Ian G.
@Mike in DC:
You know who else didn’t want to be deported from Bavaria back to his home country to avoid military service?
Of course, he unlike the cowards of the Drumpf clan, ended up fighting for Germany….
Cacti
@Yarrow:
Don’t the Scots hate Trump even more than the English, because of his stupid golf course?
Villago Delenda Est
Ethics, obviously, are for losers.
Every last one of these people needs to be banished to an ice floe with hungry polar bears.
Yarrow
@Gravenstone: “Investigation” and imprisonment of opposition leaders is authoritarian 101. Trump is going to give it a go, but they’re so incompetent that it may not work out for him. He’ll have to show some kind of cause and so far the examples he’s using are not good enough.
I agree he’s flailing because he’s nervous. He can’t control all this the way he usually could control such things before. Wonder what the weekend will bring.
Yarrow
@Cacti: They do indeed. But there are fewer of them and they’re more spread apart. Balmoral is kind of in the middle of nowhere and quite private so protests will be less of an issue. I did read somewhere that there’s only one road in and out of Balmoral, so perhaps protesters can shut that down. Maybe they’ll just take a helicopter.
dmsilev
@Cacti: Yes. We have the Scots to thank for ‘ferret-wearing shitgibbon’ as a descriptor for Trump.
dmsilev
@Yarrow: He’ll probably tell Elizabeth II that her residences are lame and SAD and need more gold leaf to glam things up a bit.
And then we’ll find out for real whether or not she has a death gaze.
Tokyokie
Hey, if manly man leader of men Vladimir Vladimirovich can order people who piss him off murdered, then Dolt 45 should at least be able to order them investigated.
Это курам на смех
@Cacti: No, they love him. He is Scotch too.
Gravenstone
@Major Major Major Major: yeah, somewhere in their primal bird brains (heh) there is probably a pattern that says “bigger versions of this have hunted us in the past – be careful”.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
@Pogonip:
In Benedict Donald’s America, money spends you!
debbie
@Cacti:
Also because he tweeted congratulations to them for voting for Brexit, when in fact they’d voted very strongly against it. Their responses were classic; in fact, that’s where the label “shitgibbon” came from.
debbie
@Yarrow:
Have they decided whether he’ll meet the Queen?
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Villago Delenda Est:
What do you have against polar bears? You make it sound like they’ll eat ANYTHING…
Aren’t they in enough trouble as it is?
hovercraft
@Zinsky:
Some comedian made that point a while ago, there is something wrong with a person who does not laugh, or have a sense of humor. He also never smiles like a normal person, it’s more like a grimace. Sociopath.
Major Major Major Major
@Gravenstone: I just love the ‘probably’ in the headline.
debbie
@Pogonip:
I get nothing but shoes and clothes. I don’t shop that much.
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: the label, but not the term. Somebody tracked it down! https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/02/13/the_origin_of_the_trump_insult_shitgibbon_revealed.html
Anne Laurie
@debbie:
I’m no monarchist, but give the old lady a break. She’s spent many years doing a tedious (though well-compensated) job for her country; having to make nice with Lord Smallgloves, at her age (and his), is a bridge too far!
trollhattan
Meanwhile in Kansas, the likely model for everything Trump and congress want to do.
Stupid judges, why didn’t Brownback buy better ones? And how didn’t he make it onto Trump’s cabinet?
debbie
@Anne Laurie:
Oh, I agree she shouldn’t give him an audience, but those Brits are always so damn polite, they may not want to turn him away.
dmsilev
@Anne Laurie: She’ll take one look at him, cry “release the hounds!”, and then stand back and watch as Trump vanishes underneath a pack of vicious attack corgis.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
So of course, he’s getting death threats. Unbelievable.
I must say I’m surprised it isn’t Scottish. It would have felt right at home in the movie Trainspotting.
El Caganer
Is there a Golden Showers Pavilion at Balmoral?
Mike J
@Yarrow: Traditionally she flies into Aberdeen then goes to Balmoral on miniature horse.
les
@trollhattan:
He’s tryin’. He’s introduced legislation to take funding away from courts that displease him, and to allow the Gov. to appoint anyone he wants to the bench. Points for effort!
Wapiti
The Queen probably had the visit pushed back, in hopes that something intervenes. Trump is ousted, she dies, anything.
Regarding the Easter Egg roll. (1) Donald hasn’t had time to come up with a plan for monetizing it. (2) The Trumps should be attacked for their War on Easter.
Just One More Canuck
@JGabriel:
“Oh son, for that you sold your everlasting soul?”
“Well, I wasn’t using it>”
MCA1
@Villago Delenda Est: I think to them “ethics” sounds suspiciously like “sensitivity training” and therefore “political correctness.” Ergo, worthless lieberal crap, fuck you we won’t do it you can’t tell me how to act!
Kropadope
See Logan with my sister and a good friend of mine. Criticism I’ve seen has been positive so pretty stoked.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Polar bears will play with anything they encounter. They’re kind of like cats in that regard.
Pogonip
@scuffletuffle: Well, if Amazon can make black, I guess Balloon Juice can make me rich!
Yutsano
@Yarrow:
A Myocardial infarction, if we’re lucky.
chris
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: And they don’t see a difference between humans and seals, they’re both yummy.
mai naem mobile
The babysitters are off on sabbath. He’s going to flip out on the twitter machine .
Pogonip
Ad this time: Nordstrom!
John Revolta
@trollhattan: Didn’t Brownstain pass some law that forbids the Supreme Court from ruling against him?
Major Major Major Major
@Pogonip: Right now mine is for Squarespace, because half of my fucking internet ads are for Squarespace right now, and I have absolutely no idea why.
Aleta
@Starfish: OMG in that video it looks like Sessions is wearing a giant reddish tie now too! (Eerie music.)
But seriously I agree with you about Comey. At this point he’s also protecting his own amoral self.
efgoldman
@Patricia Kayden:
He doesn’t even interact with his own son.
I think he is really phobic about kids and pets. Plus human interaction of any kind is clearly damned near impossible for him.
efgoldman
@schrodingers_cat:
Somehow the big bux missed me.
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major:
Don’t be a rectangle daddy-o (?)
Yutsano
I also don’t know what this means, but in my federal building, the official Presidential portrait isn’t up yet. I don’t recall it taking this long for them to show up.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
It’s a big Photoshop job to get Donald looking relatively human.
liberal
@Yutsano: Not in my wife’s, either. Her boss joked that maybe they’d allow him to put up a wallet sized photo in lieu of the usual one.
Kathleen
@JGabriel: They could use the “Business Ethics” module from Trump University.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: I’ve seen pictures of him recently. My God he’s wearing a TON of make-up. It’s like a horrid drag queen.
@liberal: I’m pretty sure the portraits come out of the White House. So odds are we may not even see them before he’s out.
Aleta
@Anne Laurie: If he annoys her can she throw him in the Tower?
Baud
@Yutsano: Incompetence manifests itself in many ways big and small.
Baud
@Aleta: I’d give her one of the original states back if she did that.
Aleta
@Yarrow: They’re planning to break out the pipes every time he opens his mouth.
Kathleen
@Shana: I hope not. Heaven knows Trump doesn’t need a captive audience of 10 year old girls to ogle and catalog as future date bait.
Pogonip
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t even know what Squarespace is (unless it’s anywhere I happen to be).
This time it’s an ad for using teabags to remove eye puffiness. I guess they got my age and sex right–but I don’t have eye puffiness! My problem is wrinkles.
Gravenstone
@Baud: Think she’d take South Carolina back? Always been the problem child of the bunch, seceding and all.
Miss Bianca
@Waldo: congratulatios, where would you like your Internet delivered?
Baud
@Gravenstone: That wouldn’t be very gracious of us. It’s like giving your significant other tube socks for Christmas.
Annie
@Aleta:
We can always dream . . .
Yarrow
@debbie:
The Queen is the head of state, so if it’s a state visit he’ll have to meet her. Plus, Balmoral is the Queen’s Scottish residence so it seems he’ll meet her. The Prime Minister doesn’t have access to it unless invited by the monarch.
The real issue was whether or not he’d be allowed to address Parliament. There was a massive amount of resistance to that idea, both from Members of Parliament and the British people, so I think that’s been scrapped.
Kay
So tomorrow is our first “resistance” meeting. I made fruit salad! I may add walnuts but they’re somewhat controversial so I may not.
This is a very easy “resistance” so far, I must say. Maybe later there will be marching or something :)
Baud
@Kay: Resistance with Cocktails and Kay!
Baud
@Yarrow: I hope he addresses Parliament so they can boo the shit out of him.
Dave
@Trentrunner: Just curious but if meeting the Russians is a normal part of their job how many of Clintons people had meetings with Russians during the campaign?
Spanky
@Aleta:
Crack?
Spanky
@Kay:
Putting them on the side is always a good compromise, although compromise is anathema to a resistance movement
liberal
Text wife: “Can I take the 8:30 train home?”
Reply: “Yes”. Followed by “Call me.”
Grumble, grumble…signal sucks, gotta go upstairs where the landlines at work are.
“Yes, honey, what’s up?”
“He’s tweeting again!”
liberal
@Spanky: I’d think, rather, a heavy dose of opioids is in order.
JGabriel
@Kathleen:
As I’m sure they say at Trump University: Business Ethics? What’s that?
@Just One More Canuck: Heh. LOL’d.
liberal
@Baud: What do the Tories think of him? I would assume the “Leave” folks would get along with him fine.
Baud
@liberal: Good. I hope they counter boo and a fight breaks out.
Debbie1
@JGabriel: Why bother taking a course on ethics if you’re in The*mp’s administration. In fact, why bother to avoid even the appearance of impropriety with Paul Ryan & M. McConnell as majority leaders. Add to that, gullible voters willing to reward bad conduct.
Kay
@Baud:
No cocktails. It’s a morning meeting. I’m a morning person, Baud. My voicemail is full but I’m not listening to the messages. “look, I’m only gonna say this ONCE” – how can they have questions already ? How is that possible?
Baud
@Kay:
I don’t understand the connection.
bemused
@Cacti:
Yes. Watch the doc “You’ve Been Trumped” about Trump ugly tactics to get his Scotland golf course. It was playing on cable quite a bit during the campaign.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amanda in the South Bay:
Holy shit, Amanda! I guess there’s a backstory I don’t know, but that seems hugely unsafe. I’m sorry your roommate suffers from schizophrenia and I hope s/he is able to get appropriate treatment, and soon, but you don’t need to be in that situation. Nor does the poor terrified kitty.
I wish all of you well.
JPL
@liberal: Is he? I’m afraid to check, since last night’s sleep was interrupted with nightmares about Trump .
SiubhanDuinne
n/m
robert thompson
Jared Knew
285
0
26
Trump’s son-in-law and adviser has been concealing a Flynn-Russia meeting for months.
By William Saletan
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/03/jared_kushner_has_been_concealing_the_flynn_kislyak_meeting_for_months.html#comments
Kushner is the square wheel in this mess. He is an unofficial official and seems to have his hand in any and every pie. Bannon is a bad hombre but I think Kushner is Mephistopheles, or worse. To what purview is he responsible. It seems very gray.
liberal
@JPL: She’s referencing what people above references, the stupid fucking shit about Schumer having a donut with Putin a few years back. Also something about Pelosi having met Putin or something.
Someone had joked that, while he probably would have done it on his own, he most certainly would have returned to tweeting given that more shit about Russia hit the fan after the brief post-speech honeymoon.
ETA I came back here after talking to her to see what BJ was saying about it.
Emma
@Yarrow: I can’t wait for the hissyfit when he realizes the Obamas went to Windsor by helicopter for a private birthday lunch (the queen’s birthday was the day before) and they were driven around by Prince Phillip himself. .
Zinsky
@Baud: Hey! I like tube socks!
liberal
@robert thompson: What do we know about Kushner, ideologically? We know Bannon is a fucking shithead who wants to unleash hell, but Kushner seems like a large-scale grifter.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: No nuts in the fruit salad, please. Inquilab Zindabad!
90 years of Indian resistance to the British Raj in 9 min.
Actual footage of Gandhi at about 8.24 or so
Baud
@Zinsky: I hope you find your soulmate.
JPL
@liberal: Like father, like son.
EBT
Flying while trans worked out well enough. Hopefully my return trip back from Seattle will be as smooth next week.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
wasn’t it in Scotland that the original “Shitgibbon” sign was hoisted?
Well, there’s no way Londoners could mount a protest that will get the world’s attention, humiliate the Shitgibbon and scare the crap out of British pols. I saw a poll saying that only about 50% of Britons oppose the visit, but I suspect the number is a bit higher in London. Just a bit.
gene108
@Kropadope:
There is no movie trailer at the end of the credits, like so many Marvel movies have.
robert thompson
@liberal: Can’t say with any certainty. I suspect its more than just the grift. he has been a low profile pusher of agendas to be sure. Does he think a new Euro-Atlantic security arrangement is order and the power of oil compels it. Or is it simple grift. I am interested in what others here may think.
bemused
@GregB:
Maybe someone has already mentioned this but that job may already be taken by Sean Spicer. Press secretary isn’t his WH job. Pics of him being Easter Bunny at WH annual Easter egg hunt have made rounds of twitter today.
Gin & Tonic
@EBT: Is that why they call it transportation?
I’ll show myself out, thanks.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Thread closed.
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: Amen to this. I called my sister’s therapists to report anything that concerned me. It amazed me how well she could pull herself together for her hour with the shrink.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
If we can get 500,000 protesters to the Women’s March on Washington the day after the inauguration, complete with hundreds of thousands of pussyhats, I can’t think it would be all that hard to get a few tens of thousands of Brits to Aberdeenshire.
I hope he does visit Scotland. The Scots are the best, the greatest, at coming up with colourful epithets, nobody does it like the Scots, believe you me!
Vhh
@JGabriel: I am relieved that they did not tske the training. Ignorance of what normal behavior looks like makes their outrageous behavior more obvious to the public.
Kay
@robert thompson:
I’m old enough to remember when we were repeatedly told that Trump hiring family members didn’t mean anything.
Absolute bullshit. Once again, the Trump Family get special rules.
You know what? It’s gross that he hired his son in law. A decent person would have shown some restraint and not foisted their entire fucking family on the country. None of these people are qualified and they make the whole idea of “merit” into a joke. Other people earn jobs and when the Trumps take advantage like this it takes something away from people who earn their positions.
The thing that makes me maddest about Trump voters is they put me in the position of getting played by these frauds and I wasn’t played and I don’t deserve that. Why is this guy’s son in law in such a position of power and why is everyone acting as if this is acceptable? Is this the rule now? The President installs a shadow cabinet of family members and we’re all supposed to play along and pretend they somehow earned this?
Barbara
@Amanda in the South Bay: I am really sorry to hear this. I posted a link to an article in the previous thread where you first posted about this that I found to be really illuminating on current approaches to schizophrenia. I hope she is doing a little better.
dm
@liberal: Reportedly a bigly fan of Benjamin Netanyahu (who has been a houseguest of his parents). Raised as a Democrat, but endorsed Romney in 2012 over disappointment with Obama on Israel.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: It’s the normalization of Suhartoism that disturbs me, much as it disturbs you. On the upside, the downfall is going to be spectacular, and the entire family is going to be affected by it.
Spanky
@EBT: Did you fly TWA? Seems they would have a leg up on that sort of thing.
What’s that? Ohhhhhhhhh.
Never mind.
Baud
@Spanky: Thread closed again.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay:@Baud: Baud is right, serve mimosas with your breakfast!
robert thompson
@Kay: Agreed. The one glaring facet of authoritarianism is the reliance on family members to run the government because naturally they can’t trust anyone or any institution. Kushner is the tell.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat: l was just listening to an interview with Gillian Anderson, who stars in “The Viceroy’s House,” about the Mountbattens and the partition of India. I have huge reservations about the movie, and perhaps some hints that partition could have been avoided, and that Churchill sent Mountbatten to India to manage independence, but had already made up his mind about the outcome. What is obviously missing here are the Indian leaders who were at the center of things.
Also, btw, enjoyed Lion, and thought that Dev Patel was fine, with an excellent presence. I think he will grow as an actor.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
I’m getting pretty good with the Photoshop, but I can’t do that.
HeleninEire
OK so this just happened.
Some background: I’ve joined a dinner club here in Dublin for people over 50. It is fabulous. There are about 300 members and at each dinner (monthly-ish) about 30 show up. So every time you go you may see people you know, maybe not. This was my 3rd. Tonight there were 3 people who I’d met before and 25 that I didn’t.
What happened: I sat with the people I didn’t know cuz I need to make friends. Somehow the topic of gay marriage came up. I was like “YAY you Ireland, you were the first to make it legal by popular referendum” And the woman next to me told the fabulous story about how her son came out. And her big takeaway was “normal is normal.” And the whole table was “Yay, gay people, also Ireland rocks”
Then out of nowhere some lady across the table from me says “Have you ever had a gay person…..touch you?”
Oh holy shitballs. I handled it about as poorly as I could have. I said “I gotta pee” and went to the ladies room (the “loo” if ya wanna be Ireland correct) and stayed there for 10 minutes. I did not want to have that conversation. And I certainly didn’t want to have it as a know-it-all American.
By the time I came back the topic was on to something else, but oh holy shitballs.
The end.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Never heard of it. Will check it out. Churchill did not want an independent India. India got its independence in 1947 because Winnie lost the general election. The seeds of the partition were sown way back in 1905 with the partition of Bengal on religious lines by Curzon.
ETA: There is plenty of blame to go around but Mountbatten’s inept handling and his expedited timetable did not help. When the British lost the confidence of the British Indian Army they basically ran away leaving behind a bloody mess. Bastards.
ETA2: I am sure the movie is good, but I am kind of tired of movies with white saviors and raggedy Indians.
Gelfling 545
@Cacti: oh, yes. Well known. Some great poet.
Van Buren
@Pogonip: All that sweet Soros cash doesn’t just sit under mattresses!
hovercraft
@Wapiti:
I’m remembering the Obama’s at the WH outside with the kids, participating in the activities, doing the book readings, just having fun with kids, can you imagine the shitgibbon doing any of those things? Can you even see him having a good time during any WH event that is not about aggrandizing him?
Baud
@HeleninEire:
Maybe she wanted to explore?
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: I have never seen him smile. He sneers but never smiles.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
@Anne Laurie:
The Queen has met many world leaders who were probably repellent to her personally. Say what you will about monarchy and royalty as a system of government–Elizabeth II is a consummate professional. It’s a State Visit. She will meet him graciously, she will preside at some kind of state dinner in his honour, she will say all the right things during the official toasts–and when he and Melania have finally (finally!) departed, she will kick back with a couple of tall G&Ts and tell Philip many scurrilous stories about Trump’s cloddish behaviour. And laugh and laugh.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
I don’t see a problem here.
Brachiator
Reminder. The movie Moonlight is on more screens, maybe near you. Go see it. It will take your mind off all things Trump for a few hours.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne:
I will say that she ought to return her ill gotten gains including the crown jewels.
satby
@HeleninEire: You know the Irish, they’ll talk about anything.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Queen was “”indisposed” during Trump’s trip and foisted that duty off on Charles.
Barbara
@Brachiator: I saw it earlier this week. It is a remarkable film, especially the last half.
Shana
@Kathleen: They’re usually much younger. Picture about 100 toddlers dressed in their new Easter outfits. It’s usually adorable.
randy khan
@Joyce H:
Ah, it’s like the Steve Martin defense: Yeah, that’ll work.
ruemara
I will be attempting to get some creative work done and ignore the awful combo of liquid fire and itchy sweater wool that is my sutures. And working eating at least 600-800 calories a day. My appetite has disappeared. I’ve eaten 6 apples, a bag of turkey jerky, a cup of soup, a chicken breast and 20 crackers since Monday. And a croissant a desperate friend showed up with. I suddenly have a bunch of concerned mother hens checking my eating patterns.
@schrodingers_cat: it’s hard for ghouls to smile and hide their sharpened fangs.
SiubhanDuinne
@satby:
Truly, it wouldn’t surprise me either. And it would be Fuckin Hilarious, as Trump has already made it known that he doesn’t want to meet Charles. Afraid the PoW will lecture him on climate change.
This entire State Visit already has WIN (or FAIL, depending on your viewpoint) written all over it.
Baud
@ruemara: Feel better.
Villago Delenda Est
@hovercraft: I can’t imagine him playing with children. Because they’d outsmart him within seconds.
PIGL
@Major Major Major Major: Buk gua?
SiubhanDuinne
@hovercraft:
Trying to see him pardoning a couple of turkeys at Thanksgiving.
Failing.
ThresherK
@SiubhanDuinne: After his awful meeting with J. Trudeau, and now this, who will be our closest ally in the world in one year? One could hardly plan to piss off best friends more effectively than he seems to be doing naturally.
JanieM
@HeleninEire: What did the woman with the gay son do, or didn’t you get to find out?
*****
Every time you write about Ireland I get misty-eyed. I had an Irish girlfriend for several years in the early nineties and was going over there 3 or 4 times a year. I thought I might even move there someday, when my kids were grown. But the relationship ended, and I was bereft at the idea that I wouldn’t be going so often. Well, it’s been 23 years…… I just can’t bring myself to go as a tourist, is part of it. But one of these years I will.
It sounds like you’re enjoying the place and settling in really well, homophobic women notwithstanding. (I never know what to say in circumstances like that either. I’d have to leave or change the subject just so I wouldn’t lose my temper and make an ass of myself.)
p.a.
@SiubhanDuinne: I know the stereotype of English cuisine is poor, but I bet welldone steak with ketchup will be a first for a state dinner there. Oh yes, and freedom fries.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Finally made a connection that has been driving me nuts: the host of My Lottery Dream Home has a perfect sassy Trump voice!
It’s on now (HGTV) if you want to check.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: When I don’t have any appetite I turn to yogurt and fruit with some nuts on top. I don’t remember whether you are vegan and/or lactose intolerant.
p.a.
@SiubhanDuinne: If they can genetically engineer an all-white-meat turkey this WH will pardon them all.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: I am not particularly a Churchill fan, especially with regards to his policies with respect to India. But I don’t think Churchill can be blamed for the partition, it was baked into the British cake long before Churchill was even on the scene.
ETA: Gillian does look a bit like Edwina but Hugh is too chunky to be Louis.
SiubhanDuinne
@p.a.:
In all my many trips to the UK, I’ve only ever had one inedible meal, and that was on my first visit in 1959. The boiled potatoes? I swear they were boiled in ammonia. (In York, if anyone cares.)
If DJT’s advance people make it known that he would like a thoroughly well-done steak with ketchup, then that is what he will be served. Of course, given what we’re hearing about the State Department, the advance team may be thin on the ground. In that case, he’ll eat what’s put in front of him and like it, or Nanny will have something to say.
(Being Balmoral, I would expect venison and salmon to figure prominently on the menu.)
HeleninEire
@JanieM: I didn’t respond. What the Mom said I do not know. I think she was as stunned as I was.
ruemara
@Baud: I am, ty Baud. Just itchy.
@schrodingers_cat: I’m not, but I’m struggling with a cough that my has cannot deal with, so I’m skipping yog for a bit. I just feel terribly full with very little food. Oh well. It’ll pass.
SiubhanDuinne
@p.a.:
Heh.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat: I think that partition might have been less painful, but it may have been inevitable. Didn’t Jinnah and his followers demand it?
efgoldman
@p.a.:
Aren’t there MickeyD’s and KFC in Scotland?
Steve in the ATL
@schrodingers_cat:
Wine. Red. Not from Georgia.
J R in WV
@EBT:
Oh, so good to hear!!
Have a good time, Seattle was great the one time we visited there – back in 1988!
Smooth travels homeward, as well!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Its certainly was not managed well. The timetable for withdrawal was expedited by a year. The British just left, leaving utter chaos behind. Think of what happened in Iraq more recently. Nehru and his generation managed that painful transition better for India than Pakistan’s leaders did.
ETA: Pakistan is an example to humankind that a shared religion is not enough to make a nation. That’s why I find BJP and their talk of Hindu India poisonous.
Blaming Jinnah or any one person is too simplistic. There is plenty of blame to go around.
In decreasing order I place the blame on the British rulers of India and their rotten enterprise which was bound to end badly, and the leadership of both the League and Congress from 1930s on.
stinger
Will Trump do that horrid handshake thing he does, yanking the other person toward him to show dominance? Trudeau was too canny for him. He’d jerk the Queen off her feet if he tried it and she wasn’t prepared. But if she is, I’ll bet she too is a master of resistance. I read once where some American woman, an ambassador’s wife or something, shook hands while curtsying (in high heels) and found that she couldn’t rise. She said the Queen realized her predicament and, still smiling, tightened her grip and drew the woman back to a standing position.
glory b
@satby: As someone who was in a similar situation, THIS.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
one of those videos trump doesn’t want you to watch
It seems to me, he wears his hair like a ferret in the wind.…
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: I hope you feel better soon. Rice and dal is good too, if you want skip yogurt.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: I’m getting all theze pro-Trump, anti-Hillary “Vote Here!” poll ads, which are freaking me da fu out.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat: Oh, I do not blame Jinnah. I respect his expression of nationalism. With Muslim countries in the Middle East demanding independence and self determination, it seems natural that Muslims in India would want to seize the opportunity as well. And after a certain point, the British became irrelevant, and could do little to affect what was happening.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: There are more Muslims in India today, than there are in Pakistan.
Slaughter
@Zinsky: That’s a point Al Franken made a couple of months back. That he never laughs, not that he has a mental illness.
Calouste
@efgoldman: Scotland has invented haggis and the deep-fried mars bar. I’m sure there something to find there that will help T along to his coronary.
Calouste
@ThresherK:
Same as it is now, Russia.
Omnes Omnibus
@Calouste: Scotch eggs.
Hob
@Served: One little nitpick about that article: “forty percent of those with confirmed H7N9 infections have died” isn’t a very meaningful statement without other numbers for context, like 1. what percentage of flu cases in general were “confirmed” as being of any specific strain, and 2. what percentage of people with confirmed infections of other flu strains died. Depending on the setting, doctors aren’t likely to run viral assays on flu patients as a general rule, so it could be that they’re only bothering to confirm the strain if the patient is already severely ill, in which case there’s no way to know how many people had the same virus but did OK.
Not saying it’s not serious, this is just a thing to keep in mind when reading articles like this. I’m a little surprised at the sloppy wording there because the author has been on the public health beat for a while.